"There we go, another one down. That makes us...5 to two, right?"

The melancholy tone of a young girls voice echoed out as she wrote tally marks on a blank piece of paper with a dulling number two pencil. She had turned to her bright orange pup, which sat patiently before her like a dog begging for a treat, avoid of sound like some soldier awaiting commands. Hara didn't know why she bothered to ask, he was a pokemon, he didn't speak! Besides, she knew she was right, what point was there is gloating to the person who had helped her in those pokemon battles.

Five wins, two losses, that was her record since she got on this boat. On its own it's almost impressive for a new trainer, but factoring in the age of her competition and she could barely get any gratification out of it. When her father brought this cruise to her attention it was like she had been given a ticket to glory, but when she boarded all she could find was ankle bitters demanding she engage in combat with them. In honesty, the fact that she had lost twice to some twerps only made her feel like this wasn't anything to be content with. She flopped back onto her cabin's bed with a loud groan and instinctively her pokemon jumped up and laid down on her gut where she would pet him.

"Man, I hope we dock soon" She grumbled, as she looked out the window into the cobalt waves of the sea.

 As she lay there, almost falling asleep, she noticed something. At first, she couldn't put her finger on what had changed, but then she realized: everyone had grown silent. A curiosity took over her as she stood up, holding her sleeping dog-pokemon. From there she walked out of her room at a brisk pace, moving up the stairs onto the deck. There, an ocean of children stood between her and the stadium, and upon it was an older gentleman.


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After the speech, Hara was left dazzled. When she decided on the cruise, Hara had asked Blaine what he knew of Fern, and she got a ballad in response. Her preconceived notions about the man had proved true as she had watched, and she was left with a steady stream of conviction for battle flowing through her veins. She could hardly contain herself with this renewed vigor, she wanted nothing more than to battle. That was when she realized her pokemon was gone.

Hara jumped at this new found situation, how could she have not noticed? Only a few minutes prior, the pokemon was in her arms, she could still remember how the Growlthe's body was almost uncomfortably warm. Almost. Looking around, the crowd of children obscured her line of vision, though she saw a commotion yards away: Children jumping away from something that was creating an invisible barrier around it. She had to take a chance, it was her only lead after all, and so she started squeezing through the crowd.

She made her way through with an aggressive initiative. Like some hunting hound chasing a fox, she seemed to know which way the thing was turning before it did.  Unfortunately in its wake where scared children: claiming the thing was feral and growling at their pokemon like it was ready to pounce. Hara began to wonder just how pumped up the thing was, when they had been fighting the younger children before it was only after their insistent nagging had droned on for too long that they'd agree but now her only pokemon was blind with aggression. Still, she followed the pokemon out of the crowd, where it stood perfectly still, pointing it's snout ahead, body flattened out and a paw up and curled in. Hara was about to pick the pokemon up when she turned to see what it was. There, before her stood something she thought she'd only ever find in her dreams: another teenager with a pokemon ripe for battle. It was a godsend, a worthy opponent, one she wouldn't feel nearly as bad fighting! His pokemon wasn't one she had seen; it was some wooly, yellow thing. But it looked like something her Growlithe could manage against. More so, she was interested in companionship, there were two teens there, possibly the only two teens she had gotten a chance to talk with yet. She decided to make her move.

Scooping up her rascal of a pet, which wiggled in excitement between her hands, she made an awkwardly paced sprint to the others, more like a jog, not a full-on dash, though she was too excited to walk. Soon, she was in speaking range. She had to think, and in all her excitement she was struggling to think of something normal to say. "Hey, how's it going" felt weird. She drifted off now, slowing rather quickly until she was at a complete stop a few yards from the two teens, dumbfounded as to how to be polite about this. Up until now the bravado of the younger kids had covered this distance. It had been so long since she had needed to make new friends, all the ones back home were made when she was a kid too, how did teenagers go about this? A soft lick from her Growlithe revitalized her, and she knew she wasn't going into this alone. And so, after a long breath to clear her mind, she charged in.

"So Fluff, huh? That's an appropriate name for a little fuzz ball like that. Are you a trainer? Maybe I could help you see just how well you two click in a battle" Hara let out boldly, her chest puffed out and her arms folded around her torso where her Growlithe sat, eagerly wacking its tail against her clavicle and arm rhythmically.